Soros-backed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx preemptively announced that she will not prosecute protesters who are “peaceful” at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
This sudden turn toward leniency runs against what she claimed in April, Wirepoints reported.
Despite the attention to “peaceful” protesters, Foxx also announced ahead of time that she will not prosecute anyone arrested for misdemeanors — such as disorderly conduct, public demonstration, unlawful gathering, criminal trespass to state-supported land, and even curfew charges.
The policy is not new, though. The prosecutor, who was given a $408,000 donation from a George Soros super PAC in 2016, has maintained this policy at least since the riots in 2020 and has released hundreds of protesters over the years — even those who perpetrated property damage.
Despite this announcement of leniency, Foxx was talking tougher in April when she told the Chicago Tribune that her past policy, confirmed in a November 15 memo, would be set aside and hinted that protesters could expect to be arrested.
The Tribune reported that Foxx “was clear that her Nov. 15 memo wouldn’t apply during that time.”
That, though, does not seem to be the case now. It appears that the lenient November 15 policy is back in effect.
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On Sunday, Foxx told the Triibe that her office does not prosecute protesters. “Whether it’s the O’Hare 40, or the educators at Northwestern, or the students at the Art Institute. We are consistent. We don’t prosecute these cases,” she said. “So this is not a policy that has been stagnant since 2020. It’s certainly a policy that we will continue to take into the DNC.”
According to the site, Foxx only vaguely promised to prosecute “specific cases involving an act of vandalism or violence.” However, Wirepoints added that some prosecutor’s office sources say that offenses including resisting/obstructing arrest, assault, misdemeanor aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery to a police officer, reckless conduct, mob action, and obstructing identification will still be prosecuted.
All this seems to run contrary to claims from the City of Chicago that authorities will not tolerate violent protests and that errant protesters will be prosecuted. The Chicago Police Department (CPD), for instance, rewrote its arrest policy in June specifically to cover the convention, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Chicago’s top cop, Superintendent Larry Snelling, even noted that the department is authorized to conduct “mass arrests” if things get out of hand.
“Mass arrest is a last resort,” Snelling explained in June:
But we know the realities of these types of situations, especially when the number of people we’re expecting to converge upon Chicago is inevitable that there is a possibility for vandalism. There is a possibility for violence, and we are prepared to deal with that.
Despite this bravado, it appears that the CPD and the city will find little support down the line when the State’s Attorney’s Office finally gets involved in cases against protesters.
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